Category: Wedding Attire

Tommy Shelby’s Blue Wedding Suit

Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in the third season premiere of Peaky Blinders

Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby in the third season premiere of Peaky Blinders.

Vitals

Cillian Murphy as Thomas “Tommy” Shelby, cunning Peaky Blinders gang leader and jaded WWI veteran

Birmingham, England, February 1924

Series: Peaky Blinders
Episode: Episode 3.01
Air Date: May 5, 2016
Director: Tim Mielants
Creator: Steven Knight
Costume Designer: Alexandra Caulfield

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today’s Week of Weddings post focuses on the sadly short-lived union of Tommy Shelby and Grace Burgess that kicked off the third season of Peaky Blinders.

This is the second Peaky Blinders wedding to be featured on BAMF Style after the first season nuptials of John Shelby and Esme Lee. While that first wedding was considerably spontaneous (at least for the groom), this union had been in the fire since Tommy and Grace first laid eyes on each other across the Garrison in 1919. Five years and one dead Irish investigator later, the two are finally tying the knot.

Grace’s family is comprised of several members of the “King’s Irish” cavalrymen that nearly abandoned the Peaky Blinders on the battlefield a decade earlier, so Tommy is forced to lay down some relatively unorthodox rules for a wedding:

No cocaine. No sport. No telling fortunes. No racing. No fucking sucking petrol out of their fucking cars… But the main thing is, you bunch of fuckers, despite the provocation from the cavalry, no fighting!

As Michael Hogan from The Telegraph reported: “Sex, drugs and ragtime: welcome to a fairytale wedding, Shelby-style.” Continue reading

Frank Underwood’s Cream Linen Suit

Kevin Spacey as President Frank Underwood in "Chapter 33" of House of Cards (2015).

Kevin Spacey as President Frank Underwood in “Chapter 33” of House of Cards (2015).

Vitals

Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, ruthless and calculating U.S. President

Gaffney, SC, August 2015

Series: House of Cards
Episode: “Chapter 33” (Episode 3.07)
Streaming Date: February 27, 2015
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Johanna Argan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The Week of Weddings comes to an end with a subdued renewal of vows for that coldest of TV couples, Frank and Claire Underwood.

“Chapter 33” is a particularly meditative episode for a show that has found its lead character throw another major character in front of a train. The episode uses the creation and subsequent destruction of a Hindu mandala to tell the story of the unorthodox Underwood marriage. While political murders and extramarital affairs aren’t enough to kill their marriage, the President and his wife find themselves more divided than ever after the events of the previous episode. It’s significant that they return to the original church in Gaffney where their formation was created in order to rejuvenate their relationship, and it’s while talking to Yates in front of their first home together that he can admit:

I can tell you this, though, there would have been no White House without Claire.

Of course, Gaffney was also the place where Frank Underwood was created, and it is here – through the increasingly less biased eyes of biographer Thomas Yates – that he is as removed from his ruthless political self as possible. He is disarmingly introspective and charismatic, pouring out stories and wisdom though it were from a bottle of bourbon in his office. Continue reading

John Shelby’s Glen Plaid Suit for Peaky Blinders’ Gypsy Wedding

Joe Cole as John Shelby on Peaky Blinders (Ep. 1.04, 2013).

Joe Cole as John Shelby on Peaky Blinders (Ep. 1.04, 2013).

Vitals

Joe Cole as John Shelby, impulsive Peaky Blinder gang member

Birmingham, England, September 1919

Series: Peaky Blinders
Episode: Episodes 1.04
Air Date: October 3, 2013
Director: Tom Harper
Creator: Steven Knight
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie

Background

Week of Weddings continues with a look from BBC Two’s Peaky Blinders. In the fourth episode, the Shelby brothers gather the Peaky Blinders for what ostensibly seems like an attack on the rival gypsy Lee family. John, the hotheaded younger brother of gang leaders Tommy and Arthur, has recently come to his family requesting their blessing to marry the neighborhood’s most prolific prostitute. The Lees, on the other side of town, have a girl that’s “gone a bit wild”. Tommy sees the opportunity here to end things without blood. (Not including the blood symbolically drawn from each new spouse’s hand.)

On the morning of the big showdown, John shows up especially itching for a fight… until Tommy pins a boutonniere on John’s left lapel and directs him to his new wife Esme. Continue reading

American Gangster: Frank Lucas’ Wedding Suit

Denzel Washington and Lymari Nadal as Frank Lucas and Eva Lucas in American Gangster (2007).

Denzel Washington and Lymari Nadal as Frank Lucas and Eva Lucas in American Gangster (2007).

Vitals

Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, heroin kingpin

Harlem, Summer 1971

Film: American Gangster
Release Date: November 2, 2007
Director: Ridley Scott
Costume Designer: Janty Yates
Tailor: Leonard Logsdail

Background

For BAMF Style, the week leading up to Valentine’s Day always means a Week of Weddings, focusing on how some of the greatest on-screen tough guys dress up for their big day.

American Gangster depicts the rise and fall of heroin trafficker Frank Lucas and his disputed claims of smuggling dope home in the caskets of American servicemen who had died during the Vietnam War. He meets the Puerto Rican beauty queen Eva (her real name was Julianna) at his nightclub, and the two are soon married. Continue reading

Sonny Corleone’s Groomsman Tuxedo

BAMF Style looks forward to Valentine’s Day this weekend with an abbreviated Week of Weddings.

James Caan as Santino "Sonny" Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

James Caan as Santino “Sonny” Corleone in The Godfather (1972). This is a production photo; in the film itself, he pins a white carnation onto his left lapel.

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James Caan as Santino “Sonny” Corleone, hotheaded Mafia underboss

Long Island, NY, August 1945

Film: The Godfather
Release Date: March 15, 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone

Background

Sonny is a natural choice as a groomsman for his sister’s wedding. Not only did he introduce her to her new husband, but he’s the underboss of New York’s powerful Corleone crime family and not the sort of guy who would appreciate being left out.

Sonny is a busy guy on the wedding day. He has to be all over the place, from the parking lot to his father’s office while keeping tabs on his war hero brother, his wife, and his mistress. Of course, when the Don summons him, he’s never far away. Continue reading

The Scarface White Wedding Suit

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983).

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983).

To wrap up the week of weddings, BAMF Style presents the first post about a character who was an adaptation of a character who was based on the man who was likely behind the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

So, yeah, logical choice for today once you wrap your brain around it.

Vitals

Al Pacino as Tony Montana, aka “Scarface”, Cuban drug kingpin

Miami, Summer 1982

Film: Scarface
Release Date: December 9, 1983
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris Continue reading

Goodfellas – Henry Hill’s Wedding Suit

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990).

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990).

Vitals

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, New York mob associate and briefly-loyal husband

New York, Summer 1964

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

Background

After years of introspection and deep, deep soul-searching, I have determined that Goodfellas is my favorite film. Thus, when my inevitable wedding day is here, I’ll invite every Peter, Paul, and Marie I know and get a huge bag ready for envelopes that better be filled with cash. I’ll also invite Joe Pesci, just for good measure. Continue reading

Catch Me If You Can: Frank’s White Dinner Jacket

Hey, guys, remember how last year in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day we had the Week of Weddings? Well, it’s back with hopes of bringing you some of the more manly posts out there to have the word “wedding” in them.

Leonardo DiCaprio as a furtive Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Leonardo DiCaprio as a furtive Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me If You Can (2002).

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Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Abagnale, Jr., aka “Frank Conners”, a young doctor lawyer con artist

New Orleans, Summer 1966

Film: Catch Me If You Can
Release Date: December 25, 2002
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres Continue reading

Don Corleone’s tuxedo at his daughter’s wedding

For the final entry of BAMF Style’s Week of Weddings, we’re examining one of the cinema’s most iconic characters.

Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather.

Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

I really hope you saw this one coming.

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Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, powerful Mafia boss and father of four

Long Island, NY, August 1945

Film: The Godfather
Release Date: March 15, 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone

Background

You’ve come across the scene a million times, whether actually watching it, seeing photos, or hearing your friends quote it. And indeed it is one of the most quotable sequences in film history.

I’m gonna make him an offer he won’t refuse.

Continue reading

The Many Marriages of Sidney Reilly

Yet another Week of Weddings two-partner, this time looking at the many marriages of Sidney Reilly, just in time for Throwback Thursday.

1901

Sam Neill as Sidney Reilly during his first wedding on Reilly: Ace of Spies.

Sam Neill as Sidney Reilly during his first wedding on Reilly: Ace of Spies (Episode: “An Affair with a Married Woman”).

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Sam Neill as the former Shlomo Rosenblum, now Sidney Reilly, an ex-professor hired as an informant for the British Secret Service

Southampton, Summer 1901

Series: Reilly: Ace of Spies
Episode: “An Affair with a Married Woman” (Episode 1)
Air Date: September 5, 1983
Director: Jim Goddard
Costume Designer: Elizabeth Waller

Background

Hopefully you know all about Reilly from the first Reilly: Ace of Spies post on this blog. What? You don’t want to go back and read all million paragraphs I wrote? Too bad, here’s a million more:

The first episode, “An Affair with a Married Woman”, quickly establishes Reilly as a cunning man who will stop at nothing in pursuit of his goals. In the summer of 1901, the young Reilly’s primary goal is money. Thus, the following sequence is appealing to him:

  1. Reilly meets a young woman who is married to a rich older man
  2. Reilly sleeps with the young woman, who falls in love with him
  3. The rich older man dies, leaving the young woman with a lot of money

Continue reading